Mission accomplished for Jai Hindley who finished third overall at Tirreno-Adriatico, and claimed his first podium finish in a major stage race since his victory at the 2022 Giro d’Italia. Targeting a podium finish, the Bora-hansgrohe squad included six riders that raced at the Italian Grand Tour two years ago with Giovanni Aleotti, Patrick Gamper, Lennard Kämna, Cesare Benedetti along with Hindley.
“I think as a team, we can be happy with the performance this week. it was nice to ride with a lot of the boys from the Giro 22 team again. We really enjoyed ourselves, and we gave it everything and I think we can be proud of the effort this week,” Hindley said after the finish.
Hindley finished twelfth in the 10km opening time trial and then stayed safe in the next three chaotic sprint stages. On the first mountain stage, overall winner Jonas VIngegaard seized control of the race with a solo long attack while Hindley and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) gave chase, crossing the line 1:12 behind and taking second and third place respectively on the stage and GC.
Though he did not win a stage, finishing third in both mountain stages won by VIngegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), it was not for lack of trying.
On stage 6, the Australian launched a counterattack once the lone breakaway rider was about to be caught in the final 7km on the long (10.2km) and steep (7.9% average) Monte Petrano climb to the finish. Vingegaard and Ayuso quickly jumped on his wheel, but a few hundred meters, the Dane accelerated away to go for the stage win and there was nothing Hindley and Ayuso could do.
“I don't think we have any regrets. we went all in yesterday and we gave it everything. And I mean, he was just on another level. So it is what it is, but really happy with my personal performance and also the way the whole team rode, and the support we had this week was phenomenal. It was awesome.”
Ultimately, Hindley finished third overall, 1:52 down from Vingegaard.
“We came to the race with a strong team, some of the guys had just returned from altitude so we knew the shape would be good. With Vingegaard on the start line, the realistic goal was to take a podium result - and we achieved that,” sports director Enrico Gasparotto stated in a team release.
The results were a “massive” boost in confidence for Hindley going into the season.
“So moving forward, we can take a lot of confidence from this week and take it into the bigger goals coming up."
Earlier this year, Bora-Hansgrohe confirmed they will target the 2024 Tour de France with Primož Roglič as their sole leader where Hindley will have a key supporting role.
